Wind Energy: Brazil in the sights of business

According to report published in November 2011, China follows on the first position as the most attractive country for renewable energy, followed by the United States (2nd), Germany (3rd), India (4th) and Italy (5th). The United Kingdom, which previously shared the post with Italy, fell to sixth place, followed by France (7th), Canada (8th) and Spain (9th).
In the ranking of wind energy, Brazil jumped four positions, being tenth in the standings. During the third quarter of 2011, the wind energy sector had guaranteed agreements to 78 projects, totaling 1,979 MW. According to the National Agency of Electrical Energy (ANEEL), the wind power capacity in Brazil should grow 600% by 2014, jumping from around 1 GW in 2010 to 7 GW.
According of analysts the fall in the value of wind energy, that led to an increase in the number of projects in the sector, was due to the arrival of Chinese wind equipment at competitive prices to Brazil, leading Brazilian suppliers to reducing costs to compete with Chinese products.
Despite of the great progress of this renewable source, Brazilian Wind Energy Association (Abbbólica) declared that the small return margin of the project still threatening the growth of the sector in the country, becoming vulnerable to complications that may arise during the construction of powers plants and of market tremors.
To work around this question, the association claims that the improvement in the environmental licensing and solutions for logistical problems are the main answers.
Biomass, SHPs and solar energy – Biomass also has developed projects, but the sector’s performance dropped because of increased competition of wind energy. Only 11 projects this source, totaling 554 MW, has won contracts, in the third quarter of 2011.
Besides wind energy, biomass also faces the competition of natural gas and small hydroelectric plants (SHP). Although there is no certainty in the medium and long term the energy produced by the sector will become more expensive. As biomass, small hydroelectric plants did not obtain much growth in the third quarter, indicating that the sector projects could not compete with low prices in auctions. In the ranking of solar energy, the country remained in 16th position, suggesting that this sector has also not made great strides in the third quarter.